


Cursed Springs

by Little_Miss_Numbers



Category: Ranma 1/2, due South
Genre: Animal Transformation, Curses, Gen, Genderswap, Inspired by Ranma 1/2, Ray almost manages a bit of gender introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 10:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21178160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Miss_Numbers/pseuds/Little_Miss_Numbers
Summary: Fraser and Ray fell into some cursed ponds and now Ray turns into a woman every time he gets hit with cold water. But maybe it's not as bad as he'd thought it would be.





	Cursed Springs

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off the lore in Ranma 1/2. Where the basic premise is that if you fall into a cursed pond, you turn into whatever drowned there every time you're hit with cold water, and turn back into yourself whenever you're hit with hot water. 
> 
> This fic was written to fill two prompts from the [Trope Writing Prompts Community](https://www.pillowfort.social/community/Trope%20Writing%20Prompts) on Pillowfort. Genderswap, and Transformation into Animals.

It all started with those damned springs in China. An investigation that had taken them halfway around the world and back, and culminated in a foot chase through what Ray now knew were cursed springs. 

And now she was back in Chicago and it was raining and her pants were at least a size too big she noted bitterly holding them up as she raced through various alleyways trying to find her second perp. The wolf had the first one, pinned against a wall while he growled at him. Dief, the only one of them who'd somehow managed to make it through all those springs without falling in.

Ray rounded another corner, checked behind her, and suddenly felt someone grab her wrist hard enough to make her drop her gun. She turned back around and found herself looking up at her second perp holding a knife to her face.

The perp's expression changed immediately from anger to surprise. "Who the hell are you?"

It happened almost too quickly to see. A tiny white fuzzy bullet in a Mountie hat hit the perp right between the eyes, and Ray had just enough time to think, _who knew seals had claws_, while she rushed to get her gun. 

"On your knees!" she yelled. "Drop the knife and get on your knees or so help me I'll let that seal claw your eyes out."

The perp did as he was told.

And yeah, Ray thought, looking at the tiny fuzzy seal with those giant black eyes watching her as she handcuffed their perp, how the hell did a baby white coat seal end up drowning in a spring in southern China in the first place?

The other perp was still where they'd left him, backed up against a corner by a snarling Dief. And he actually looked relieved when Ray and Fraser got back to properly arrest him--if maybe a little confused. Dief rushed over to Fraser and nuzzled him so hard his mountie hat came off. 

When this whole thing had started, Ray had been a bit worried about Fraser suddenly turning into a common prey animal for wolves. She still wasn't entirely sure if Dief entirely understood that Fraser was Fraser or if he just liked his new seal friend that smelled a bit like him. Fraser had some long complicated explanation about pack bonding, but honestly Ray didn't really care. Just so long as it wasn’t going to be an issue.

Ray passed off both perps to a pair of uniformed officers. Then she went back to get Fraser and his hat. 

When Ray walked back into the precinct, she was soaked to the bone, in clothes that were too big with one hand holding up her water-heavy pants and the other holding Fraser, happily hanging limply while he waited patiently for Ray to get him back to hot water. Diefenbaker trotted happily behind them, taking every opportunity he could to nuzzle Fraser. 

Nobody even looked at them. This had happened so many times already it basically Tuesday. Except--

"Oh my God, is that Fraser?"

"No Franny," said Ray dryly. "It's one of the other many baby seals you find littered around the streets of Chicago. Of course it's Fraser."

Franny didn't answer. Instead she made a noise Ray had never heard come out of an actual human being before. It sounded halfway between a coo and a whine.

Ray moved to walk past her.

"Can I pet him? Can I hold him?" she asked following Ray. "Please at least let me carry him."

They did this every time, and every time Ray's answer was the same. "No."

She purposefully chose the Men's bathroom so Franny couldn't follow them in. 

There were two people in there, Ray didn't recognize either of them. The one washing his hands gaped at her--admittedly Ray thought it might have been the seal and wolf she had with her--and the other guy at the urinal was so panicked he nearly caught his dick as he quickly zipped up his pants. 

"I'm commandeering this bathroom to change," said Ray. She would have pulled her badge out for effect if both hands weren't currently occupied. So she opted to just sound as authoritative as she could manage. "Everyone out!" 

The guy at the urinal looked confused and worried, though mostly confused as his eyes kept shifting between Ray, Fraser and Dief. Especially Dief, which Ray found impressive because how often do you see a baby seal in a mountie hat. 

"C--can I wash my hands first?"

Ray looked the dude straight in the eye. He was in a uniform and Ray thought he must be new if he didn't know her deal already. She was always amazed how intimidated most men got around assertive women. If Ray tried to pull this as a scrawny 5'10" guy, most men would have pushed back. Though she supposed having a wolf with her didn't hurt either. 

"I'll tell you what, you can go stand guard outside and keep everyone out and I'll let you know when you can come back in and wash up," said Ray. "Now out! Both of you."

They left. And Ray breathed a sigh of relief at finally being alone for the first time since getting caught in that rain storm. Well Fraser and Dief were still with him but they didn't count.

She set Fraser on the counter beside the tap and turned the water onto hot and waited. When she caught a glimpse of a scrawny woman with oversized clothes in the mirror, she couldn't help but stare. Her features were a bit softer and her hair for some reason always adopted a reddish tinge when she changed, but she could easily be her own twin. For some reason she found that comforting. 

When the water was hot enough she splashed her own face first, then she set Fraser down on the bathroom floor and splashed him too. 

"Thank you kindly, Ray," said Fraser, suddenly 6 feet tall and still in soaking red serge. Beside him, obviously disappointed by the loss of his seal friend, Dief whined. 

"I hope that stuff isn't dry clean only," said Ray. Then before Fraser could launch into a diatribe about all the benefits of the red serge uniform, "Honestly Frase, we’ve got to get this figured out."

He took his shirt off and ringed it out. At least the little bit of dampness on their clothes didn't seem to be enough to trigger the transformation or they'd both be in that bathroom all day. 

"Get what figured out?" Fraser asked Ray. "I thought you handled this situation in the alley quite admirably."

"Yeah, well there wouldn't be anything to handle if we both didn't change at the smallest bit of water," said Ray. "I'm serious, let's just grab a pair of tickets to China next time we've got a few days off and--Why don't you look more enthusiastic about this?"

Fraser looked just a little to the left of Ray as he thumbed his eyebrow, and Ray thought that he actually looked guilty. "Of course I support whatever decision you make, Ray."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming."

"I don't talk about this much, but I've always had a rather intense fear of falling through ice in the winter. And now I know if such an event were to occur, I would simply turn into a seal be able to swim out...well, quite frankly, it's been rather comforting."

Ray blinked. "Fraser, are you telling me that you like turning into a baby seal whenever you hit cold water?"

Fraser nodded. "Very much so, yes."

Ray leaned against the sink behind him. He hadn't been expecting that response. He needed a minute.

"Fraser, this morning you dialed my cell from the consulate because Dief had shook himself after coming in from the rain and there was no one there to help turn you back. It took me 30 minutes of listening to you pressing random buttons to figure out what was going on."

Fraser continued to look fascinated by the bathroom’s tile wall. "Of course it's expected to be a learning curve," he pointed out. "And as I already explained this morning, the dialing wasn't random, I was very clearly tapping the word 'seal' in Morse code."

"Literally no one speaks Morse code but you," said Ray. Then before Fraser had a chance to correct him, or worse, try once again to convince him to learn it, he said, "I mean of course not everything about this curse is going to be awful, I get that. I’ve noticed some nice things too. Like women's bathrooms, so much nicer than men's."

Fraser frowned. "I've always found the men's bathroom quite adequate."

"Yeah, that's because where you come from just the existence of actual plumbing is a luxury," countered Ray. "Look, you've never been in a woman's bathroom before. This one I was in had a bench and potpourri beside the sinks. You could never do that in a men's bathroom, we'd be flinging it at each other."

"I mean you shouldn't just assume--" Fraser started but Ray interrupted. 

"And people are just nicer to you when you're a woman," he continued. "I mean what's up with that?"

"Well there's a very complicated sociological factors to consider, and while people may be treating you nicer, it's important to keep in mind they are not necessarily treating you better." Fraser countered.

"The other day when we came in after I got knocked into that wading pool by those circus clowns, Huey saved me the last donut. Chocolate long johns, Frase, no way is anyone saving that for me as a guy."

Fraser didn't have a response to that, so Ray assumed his point was made. 

"Not to mention their drinks taste so much better, and you'd think there'd be less alcohol, but there really isn't."

"You know, Ray, you can drink the same drinks no matter your gender," Fraser pointed out. 

Ray just shook his head. "Yeah, that's not how these things work."

Fraser looked skeptical. 

"Look," Ray continued, "My point is, I get it. There's some perks. I didn't expect it to be this freeing. You get survive falling through ice. But we can't stay like this."

Fraser cocked his head. "Why not?"

Ray opened his mouth, then closed it again when he realised he didn't have a ready answer for that. "Because we can't," he finally managed. "Because people make jokes." 

Except that wasn't really true, there'd been some teasing the first week or so after the precinct had figured it out--thanks to an overzealous fire alarm system and a perp who tried to smoke when she'd been left alone in an interview room for about 30 seconds--but not really much past that. Stella had only given Ray one long look as a girl, said "Good," and walked away. 

Fraser was giving Ray a curious look. Ray didn't like that look. It was a look that very clearly said 'I'm seeing something about you I hadn’t noticed before.' Ray hated that look. Especially when he wasn’t sure what exactly that thing _was_.

"You know, Ray," said Fraser. "There's hundreds of cursed ponds, it could take quite a while to find the one that would break the curse. A few days may not be enough time. You may end up changing into something completely different."

Ray leaned back and crossed his arms. He hadn't considered that. A woman was one thing, but he’d hate to end up turning into a turtle or something.

"Perhaps," said Fraser, "we should take some time to plan. Maybe even wait until we have a significant amount of time off."

"Yeah," Ray agreed, feeling an unexpected sense of relief and Fraser's suggestion. "I mean there's no rush, we have time to be strategic about this."

Fraser smiled at him. "Exactly."

And yeah, OK, Ray felt good about this. Surprisingly so.

When they stepped outside of the bathroom, uniform guy was still there, staring at the three of them. His eyes lingered especially on Diefenbaker, Fraser's hat and Ray's now very flat chest. 

"I--I thought you were a girl."

"It's a men's bathroom," said Ray without missing a beat. "Why would I go in there if I was a girl?"

"Thank you kindly," said Fraser, tipping his hat before following Ray down the hallway. 

And yeah, Ray thought, eventually they were going to sort this whole thing out. Definitely, in the sort of near future. Because of course they had to. But in the meantime he was going to be getting more of those bright girly drinks while he still could.


End file.
